Throwing Strikes

The inspiring story of the 2012 National League Cy Young Award Winner Adapted for young readers from his New York Times bestselling memoir Wherever I Wind Up, this is the inspiring story of how knuckleballer R. A. Dickey became one of the game’s best pitchers. He had humble beginnings, and as a child kept a terrible secret. But at a local prep school, coaches saw talent in him and fostered his skills as a player. Dickey went on to pitch in the Olympics while at the University of Tennessee, but his Major League hopes took a downturn when an X-ray revealed a major problem with his throwing arm. It would seem his future in baseball was over before it even began. But R.A. knew better. Through faith, hope, and determination, he achieved his dreams and made it into the major leagues. Now, he’s one of the most respected pitchers in the game, a Cy Young Award winner, and he's changed the way people view the knuckleball – and himself. An inspiring true story about beating the odds, R.A. is proof that with hard work and devotion, anyone can overcome whatever life throws at them.

This little book will teach you all you need to know about the most frustrating yet entertaining pitch in baseball: the knuckleball. It makes batters look foolish when it works; it embarrasses pitchers when it doesn't...or if it works too well. It humiliates catchers and umpires. It confounds spectators. Dave Clark has spent most of a lifetime studying the knuckleball, talking to the major league pitchers who have thrown it, and throwing a few of his own. His book explains the strange workings of the pitch and how it's used, no matter what your interest—whether you're a pitcher, batter, catcher, umpire, coach, spectator, or parent of any of the above. Everything Mr. Clark demonstrates in The Knucklebook is carefully illustrated with line drawings, so if you're an average high school pitcher who can throw strikes, you'll be able to throw a knuckleball exactly like a legendary Hall of Famer. You'll find appropriate and hilarious comments from those who have experienced the game of baseball as it's been affected by the wandering floater. Like those who throw the knuckler, all this information was scattered to far-flung corners of the baseball world until Mr. Clark gathered and compiled it. Reading his little book, you'll end up less mystified and more enlightened about this antic pitch. Or, like the pitch itself, you can just ride the breezes and enjoy the dancing flight from beginning to end. With 51 black-and-white line drawings.

Pitching Strategies Explained is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book in the world today on the mental strategies used by top collegiate and professional pitchers. It is a must-have for any player, parent or coach hoping to maximize success at any level of the game. Pitching Strategies Explained leaves no stone unturned as it delves into every aspect of a pitcher's strategic universe. In addition to drills, warm-ups and sample game plans, it includes a number of charts and tables demonstrating everything from pitch location to a hitter's habits. Not only does Pitching Strategies Explained contain everything a pitcher could ever want to know about the mental side of pitching, but it is also written in an easy-to-follow manner and contains information on college scouting, recruiting and parental participation. Below are just some of the many topics the book analyzes. - How to Get Outs - Understand the Strike Zone - Where to Stand on the Rubber - Pitching Sequences - The Necessity of Pitching Inside - Understand a Batter's Vision - Pitching to Bunters - Pitching with Men on Base - When to Throw/Not to Throw Different Types of Pitches - Away Early, In Late - When in Doubt, Stay Away - How Velocity Affects Strategy - Work Fast and Upset the Batter's Rhythm - Pitching Ahead and Behind - Recognizing the Batter's Weakness - The Batting Stance (how to pitch to more than 20 different batting stances) - Pitching to the Hitter's Weaknesses - Know the Pitch for the Count - Signals for a Stubborn Catcher - Holding Runners and Pickoff Moves (includes dozens of unique tips and strategies) - Fielding in the Pitcher's Position - Pitching to Converted Left-Handed Hitters - Full Count Pitches - Destroy the Batter's Rhythm - The Emotional Game

The fast and easy way to perfect your bowling game Bowling is an inexpensive date, an affordable night out for the whole family, and a fun hangout activity for kids of all ages. Bowling For Dummies reveals the tips, tricks, and rules of play for this iconic American sport. While not every player can hope to bowl 300, you can improve your average and show off for friends, family, and bowling league teammates. Bowling For Dummies provides easy-to-understand instructions for improving your bowling game. The expert tips and advice take you through every step of the game, from selecting the right shoes to the proper way to yell, "Strike!" Packed with photos and line drawings Step-by-step instructions and illustrations included for all techniques Covers beginner through more advanced techniques Whether you're a casual bowler or on a bowling league, the practical, friendly advice in Bowling For Dummies will have you itching to hit the lanes to try out your new skills.

Nobody's baseball story is like Roy Halladay's.He was born and raised to be a superstar. He was a first-round draft pick in 1995. He nearly threw a no-hitter in his second big-league start in 1998. But two years later, Halladay suffered arguably the worst season by any pitcher in baseball history. He was months away from being out of the game.Hall of Fame pitchers do not struggle like that. But Halladay vowed to change. He altered his pitching mechanics and rewired his brain to become one of the greatest pitchers of all time. How did Doc do it? Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay tells the remarkable story; based on more than 100 interviews with Halladay's family, friends, managers, coaches, teammates, and competitors, including extensive interviews with his wife, Brandy; comprehensive archival research; and previously unpublished commentary from Halladay himself. Doc not only tells the story of Halladay's illustrious baseball career in Toronto and Philadelphia, but his hard-driven adolescence, his lifelong personal struggles, and his motivation to pay forward the knowledge and philosophies that helped him achieve baseball greatness before his tragic death in 2017.This essential biography is a testimonial for baseball players and pitchers from high school to the big leagues still searching for their path to excellence, like Halladay. It's also a celebration and a profound exploration of a generational pitcher and a beloved teammate, friend, and family man.

Noted baseball historian Norman L. Macht brings together a wide?ranging collection of baseball voices from the Deadball Era through the 1970s, including nine Hall of Famers, who take the reader onto the field, into the dugouts and clubhouses, and inside the minds of both players and managers. These engaging, wide-ranging oral histories bring surprising revelations—both highlights and lowlights—about their careers, as they revisit their personal mental scrapbooks of the days when they played the game. Not all of baseball’s best stories are told by its biggest stars, especially when the stories are about those stars. Many of the storytellers you’ll meet in They Played the Game are unknown to today’s fans: the Red Sox’s Charlie Wagner talks about what it was like to be Ted Williams’s roommate in Williams’s rookie year; the Dodgers’ John Roseboro recounts his strategy when catching for Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax; former Yankee Mark Koenig recalls batting ahead of Babe Ruth in the lineup, and sometimes staying out too late with him; John Francis Daley talks about batting against Walter Johnson; Carmen Hill describes pitching against Babe Ruth in the 1927 World Series.

Written by three esteemed baseball statisticians, "The Book" continues where the legendary Bill James?'s "Baseball Abstracts" and Palmer and Thorn?'s "The Hidden Game of Baseball" left off more than twenty years ago. Continuing in the grand tradition of sabermetrics, the authors provide a revolutionary way to think about baseball with principles that can be applied at every level, from high school to the major leagues.Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin cover topics such as batting and pitching matchups, platooning, the benefits and risks of intentional walks and sacrifices, the legitimacy of alleged ?clutch? hitters, and many of baseball?'s other theories on hitting, fielding, pitching, and even baserunning. They analyze when a strategy is a good idea and when it?'s a bad idea, and how to more closely watch the ?inside? game of baseball.Whenever you hear an announcer talk about the ?unwritten rule? or say that so-and-so is going ?by the book? in bringing in a situational substitute, "The Book" reviews the facts and determines what the real case is. If you want to know what the folks in baseball should be doing, find out in "The Book,"